Jewish Autonomous Oblast

Description

The Jewish Autonomous Oblast (JAO) is a federal subject of Russia in the far east of the country, bordering Khabarovsk Krai and Amur Oblast in Russia and Heilongjiang province in China. Its administrative center is the town of Birobidzhan.

The JAO was designated by a Soviet official decree in 1928, and officially established in 1934. At its height, in the late 1940s, the Jewish population in the region peaked around 46,000–50,000, approximately 25% of its population. Since then the share of Jews steadily declined, and according to the 2021 Russian census, there were only 837 ethnic Jews left in the JAO (0.6%).

Article 65 of the Constitution of Russia provides that the JAO is Russia's only autonomous oblast. It is one of two officially Jewish jurisdictions in the world, the other being Israel. It is one of the few places in the world where Yiddish is a recognized minority language.